BENTON -- With his sophomore starting quarterback banged up late, Benton Coach Brad Harris turned to a pair of steady backups to help the Panthers pull off an astonishing come-from-behind victory over Jonesboro on Friday.
Junior utility player Gavin Wells found Michael Allison for an 8-yard touchdown with 12.2 seconds left in the game as Benton battled back from a 12-point, fourth-quarter deficit and overcame a late Hail Mary score to beat Jonesboro 38-37 in the second round of the Class 6A playoffs at Panther Stadium.
"Just stunning," Harris said. "We didn't play well, but we found a way to win. But I can't really explain what just happened.
"The game we had against them two years ago was a thriller, but this one right here gives me gray hairs and a heart attack. What a ballgame."
Allison's touchdown, set up after defensive back Kelby Caffery snagged his third interception of the game, capped a 22-point fourth quarter for Benton (9-2), which advanced to the semifinals for the third time in the past four years. The Panthers will travel to West Memphis next week, but they had to sweat out some tense moments late to do so.
Jonesboro got the ball after Benton's late score and moved 80 yards in just three plays, with quarterback Cross Jumper firing a 41-yard touchdown pass to Tate Lutes with no time left. But Hurricane kicker Garrett Childers slipped just as he kicked what would have been the game-tying extra point. The ball, in turn, hit the hands of a pair of Benton players, allowing the Panthers to escape.
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Quarterback Garrett Brown, who left the game with less than three minutes left, completed 12 of 25 passes for 188 yards and 2 touchdowns for Benton, which beat Jonesboro 56-52 in the second round of the postseason in 2016. Allison and Garrett Body each had 2 scores while Zak Wallace chipped in with 70 yards rushing and a touchdown. Reserve quarterback Colen Morrow, who came on in relief of Brown, was 6-of-6 passing for 60 yards on Benton's tying touchdown drive prior to the Panthers' game-winning march.
Jumper was 16 of 33 for 243 yards with 4 touchdowns and 3 interceptions for Jonesboro (7-5), which used a fast-paced tempo to establish its 12-point lead in the second half. Jumper also added 71 yards on the ground, including an 8-yard touchdown. Lutes finished with 7 catches for 105 yards and 3 scores while Albert George carried 19 times for 120 yards.
"That's a good team, and there were times that I felt like [Jonesboro] outplayed us," Harris said. "We knew it'd be tough. In that third quarter, they tempo'd us, and their offensive line played really well in that stretch.
"And that quarterback, he's a handful. But we survived, and that's what counts."
Benton took a 3-0 lead on Garrett Eason's 27-yard field goal with 2:35 left in the first quarter before Jumper's scoring run finished off an 8-play, 47-yard drive with 6:11 left in the second quarter. Benton countered three snaps later with Brown's 53-yard touchdown pass to Body at the 5:26 mark, then extended its advantage to 16-7 on its next series on Brown's 54-yard scoring strike to Allison.
The Hurricane, though, managed to carve into their deficit just before halftime. Jumper engineered a 10-play, 69-yard march in just under two minutes and pulled Jonesboro within 16-14 on his 13-yard touchdown pass to Lutes with 16 seconds remaining in the half.
Jonesboro began playing faster in the third quarter and used that method to open up its 12-point margin. Jumper tossed a 10-yard touchdown to Lutes with 6:39 left in the period, then hit Syieed Wilson for a 13-yard score with 2:50 left to give the Hurricane a 28-16 lead.
But Benton wouldn't go away. Wells threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Body with 9:51 left in the game to pull the Panthers within 31-23. Childers added a 39-yard field goal on Jonesboro's ensuing possession, but Wallace's 4-yard run with 1:34 left cut Benton's deficit to two. Morrow then found Wells open in the end zone on the following two-point conversion to tie the game at 31-31 before the final chain of events.
Sports on 11/17/2018